One Theory about why RJ has died down

The writer of this article is referring to his participation over a decade's time in the forums at Rotten Tomatoes. But as he describes what has happened to the forums, it sounds eerily similar to what's happened here. An interesting read. Thoughts?

Until recently (as in the past 2-3 weeks) I have been ignoring RJ also.

Constantly seeing the same negative and useless threads hijacked by the likes of Spazzy really brings the vibe of the place down. he is such a Debbie Downer and is hugely responsible for brining the energy of this place down. I'll probably go on another hiatus soon....

Jeff, I would agree that the writer's theory is pretty much applicable to the decline of RJ, when he said:"But as any community grows in popularity, the bots, the spammers and, as Reagle calls them, the haters arrive. That sense of community dwindles." Although with RJ, it was limited to the rise of the trolls and "haters" (although I am not completely certain that I understand what a "hater" is.) Bots and spammers have not been significant here. And he also points out, that the ascendancy of Facebook and its ilk - with easily input "likes," with little or no discussion or reasoning required, resulted in a lot of people's time being spent on similar sites - and even gays have only so much free time for the internet.

His other statement, "And, as the Web is always innovating, some alternative pops up," is not really applicable to RJ - since although other sites take up users' time, there really haven't been any alternative gay fitness or discussion sites to take the place of RJ.

@Pazzy - Johnny has not been the cause of the decline of RJ - The only guy he seems to harass is you - and you always seem to rise to his bait - from which he undoubtedly gets some enjoyment. Although he does make some hyperbolic racist comments from time to time (mostly referring to you), I hardly think they have driven anyone away from the RJ site. It goes without saying, if you put him on ignore, you would not see any of his "contributions."

Just my two cents, as someone who posts on a regular basis. Some of the forum threads have literally 50 pages and are over 3 years old. These forums should be deleted, if the topic wants to be revived again, we can start fresh.

I'm strongly active on RJ for weeks or months at a time, then I go on hiatus for months or, at most, a year at a time (always because of work, when I'm swamped with trials, I don't have ANY free time). So I'm not sure about the RJ "decline."

I'm not saying it doesn't exist, I simply want to know (1) what is the RJ decline, (2) how extensive is it, and (3) how is RJ trending now?

Sharkspeare saidThe writer of this article is referring to his participation over a decade's time in the forums at Rotten Tomatoes. But as he describes what has happened to the forums, it sounds eerily similar to what's happened here. An interesting read. Thoughts?

Is below what you meant? But much of his piece is a bit difficult for me to follow, to find his main theme.

“I do believe the popularity of social media is causing a decline in forum usage,” user Looka wrote, echoing my suspicions. “Either people want facebook status/twitter style blurbs and keep scrolling” or they carve out “echo chambers for their discussion of whatever shared interest or just for a place to chat with friends.”

“I think that social media is more popular than forums are because it provides more instant and more easily quantifiable gratification and validation,” another user, MaxRenn, added. “Features like Facebook's Like button and Reddit's upvote and downvote buttons give you warm fuzzies within minutes, sometimes seconds.” Forums “require you to do a little more work.”

Probably parallels the price of gas and inversely proportional to temps.With prices low and weather getting nicer, people are more likely to be out on the road or outside rather than behind the computer screen.

wrestlervic saidI have to agree with the bots and spammers. About 80% of the direct emails I get on this site are 20-year-olds from Ghana or Nigeria who just listed themselves.

Me, too! Although I'd put mine at around 50%, with a few from Eastern Europe. How DO they find us, so soon after joining RJ? And obviously not reading my Profile, which clearly states I'm monogamous, not interested at all, and that kind of behavior will get them blocked.

Sharkspeare saidThe writer of this article is referring to his participation over a decade's time in the forums at Rotten Tomatoes. But as he describes what has happened to the forums, it sounds eerily similar to what's happened here. An interesting read. Thoughts?

Sad really the parallels. I can't believe there are topics on the main page that are over three days old.

Maybe I should give Reddit another try. Believe it or not, I found the number of idiots there more bothersome.

Like all other forums, Reddit has its share of hive mind circle jerks. Also, the usual abundance of morons with computers.

But I have to say that I like Reddit a lot. There are subs for just about every topic/idea. Some subs are more active than others. But regardless, there's more fresh content there every minute than there is here in a month. On RJ, it's the same shit all the time..

- Straight friend crush- Recommend me some underwear- Gay community sucks- Vote for me in this modeling contest on some other site- Bitch fest amongst certain members- Let's jackoff on skype/kik- And on, and on, and on

But really, RJ died because the owners, past and present, let it get that way.

Sharkspeare saidThe writer of this article is referring to his participation over a decade's time in the forums at Rotten Tomatoes. But as he describes what has happened to the forums, it sounds eerily similar to what's happened here. An interesting read. Thoughts?

1995 and 14.4K are way late. Back in the real good ol' days (before riff-raff had modems), when the on-line experience was text only (or ASCII art), we wondered what the point of a 1200 bps modem was because it scrolled faster than you could read (unlike the 300 bps modem).

mwolverine said1995 and 14.4K are way late. Back in the real good ol' days (before riff-raff had modems), when the on-line experience was text only (or ASCII art), we wondered what the point of a 1200 bps modem was because it scrolled faster than you could read (unlike the 300 bps modem).

GBBS (Gay BBS) was around by around 1986 or so.

The home computer user was required to learn computer programming; a significant time commitment many new computer owners weren't willing to make. Still, for others the home computer offered the first opportunity to learn to program.

I was not one of them, except in college, 1990, made a program on a Mac, my first home PC wasn't until '95, windows and AOL dial up, 1.0 I think. I remember the gay men's chat rooms well

and these BFs are rarely found on RJ. They are found locally. Internet BF's are not that reliable and often not even real.I think you have a choice every day to decide how much time you spend on RJ and how much time you spend on living in the real world outside of the internet in general. Lots to do out there if you let yourself go do it.

Gosh, I remember dialing into AOL at two in the morning, barely awake while listening to that funny connection noise, wooo wooo du-dum du-dum, and hoping to have an email from my latest lover in my IN box.

Perhaps back when RJ had more critical mass there were "meet-ups".I remember attending one at Pride in Chicago maybe 5 years ago.I also found local people who are still friends and play on my football team.(Heh, the team's origins, in 2005, were local people from gay.com)